A/N: This was partially inspired by a post I saw on Tumblr about the team's reactions to a pet, but I searched for it later and couldn't find it.
-Written after S2E15, but I would say there are no large spoilers, only maybe little hints of series' events.
-Also, Leonard is here because "time travel."
~AL
"What. On Earth. Is that?"
Sara smirked. "It's a kitten, Rip." She clawed the air playfully.
It mewed as he stared down its tiny stature. It was all white and it had...alarmingly big blue eyes.
"Why is it on my ship?" He looked at his assembled team. They milled about haphazardly, not a one of them strapped in for the return journey.
None of them seemed ready to fess up.
"Jax, is this your doing?"
The young man scowled, but Stein bristled on his behalf before he could argue. "There's no need for that accusatory tone, Mr. Hunter."
Rip's arms went up uselessly as he huffed. "Well, it can't stay."
"Why not?" Amaya picked the kitten up and tickled its face with a finger. The thing immediately became a motorized version of itself. Rip was shocked it didn't vibrate out of Amaya's hands.
"Because we can't just keep picking up strays out of time. Again! The first rule of time travel is to leave the period as history intended."
But his words fell on deaf ears.
Half of his team had already crowded around it, each trying to pet it despite the fact its entire body was barely the size of Mr. Rory's hand. And the damn thing was enjoying it. Mocking Rip from the comfort of Amaya's palms.
"Maybe I'll have a partner to help me with the rat problem." Ray gave a winning smile.
"If that thing gets near Axel, I'll skin it," Mick warned. He and Leonard hadn't bothered to swarm around the animal.
"Axel?" Nate asked.
"His rat." Leonard glared at Nate as he answered, daring him to say anything else.
"Good to see you making friends," Nate quipped.
Ray smiled at his teammates; he was pleased at Mick's unusually positive reception of the gifted pet.
"Maybe we can socialize them. Make 'em friends." Sara directed the saucy comment at Leonard.
Mr. Snart didn't quite smile, but his face became so far removed from the tight and drawn face he usually wore that it might as well have been one.
"If you put those two together, my money's on the rat," Nate piped in.
"At least until you grow up big and strong." Martin Stein began to baby talk.
"Good Lord." Rip never thought he'd see the day.
"What should we name it?" Ray asked.
"How about Pip?" Sara suggested.
"I'm partial to Fluff, myself. Fluffy. Fluffums, if you will," Nate said. The cat's fur was somewhat full, but of a short length. Ray began to argue with Nate over the logistics of what constituted "fluffy."
"No, no, I have the perfect name," Stein interrupted. "How about, Kitten Cold?"
Snart drew breath, but before any of them could react, Rip slammed a hand on the ship's console. "We are not keeping it!"
"C'mon, Rip." Sara gave him a pouty look that most certainly would not work.
"I draw the line at two mangy beasts on this ship. After all, we already have to deal with Mr. Rory."
Mick shot daggers at Rip and angrily bit off a chunk of croissant. Rip had come to expect wherever Mick Rory was, food was also.
"How about a vote?" Sara asked calmly. "Everyone in favor of keeping the cat?" She held up a hand. Amaya shifted the kitten and raised hers. Ray's hand shot up.
Nate shrugged and raised his as well. "Allergies be damned. A cat would really complete the whole eccentric intellectual thing I have going on."
Stein rolled his eyes and huffed, but he and Jax raised their arms simultaneously.
Rip noticed Leonard. "Really?" he asked.
"Where my captain goes, so goes I." His eyes shifted from Rip to Sara. His hand was in the air.
This co-captain situation was starting to become a pain in the arse. "Mr. Rory?" he asked. He was the only one of his team whose hand was not raised.
"Mangy beasts don't have opinions."
Rip froze as his words came back to haunt him. "For the love of – Gideon, back me up here."
"I detect no aberrations as a result of removing this specimen from the timeline."
"Gideon!" he chastised.
"Sorry, Captain. Numerous studies have shown that small animals have the capacity to reduce stress in their owners considerably. Considering the taxing nature of time travel, I have no doubt the young feline will become an asset to the team."
"So what did we decide on the name?" Nate asked.
"Tesla?"
"No one's going to name anything Tesla, Ray. Ever." Sara rolled her eyes.
Rip wagged a finger. "No, no names!"
"It's pretty obvious we're keeping him," Leonard said.
"Her," Amaya corrected.
"Maisie," Mick grumbled.
"I don't like it," Amaya told him.
"I'm done helping," he snarled.
"Catherine!" Ray grinned adorably. "We could call her Cat for short –"
Sara vetoed that idea. "Ex-girlfriend," she explained.
'Oh, that's right. The 1750s," his grin grew. "I forgot."
"I didn't," Leonard smoldered at Sara.
She tried not to look too pleased at herself. "I didn't mean to make such a scene," she defended herself. "She was a…forceful woman."
"I'll bet." Leonard looked at her through half-lidded eyes.
Rip didn't know what his team was talking about and he was fairly certain he didn't want to be made aware of how close his team undoubtedly came to irrevocably changing history while he was gone.
"How about Khan, Destroyer of Worlds?"
Stein gave a stately giggle. "Good one, Jefferson."
"It's a girl," Amaya protested.
"Names aren't inherently gendered, Amaya," Sara reminded. "Besides, I kinda like it. Khan it is," she declared.
"Ooh, I'm going to go get the fabricator to make the world's fanciest kitten food," Ray said. He was still excited about the machine after all this time.
Nate followed, arguing about the benefits of feeding all-natural.
"I better go make sure they don't punch another hole in the ship." Amaya sighed and handed the kitten off to Sara.
"Now that's something I'd like to see," Jax said. Stein followed. Both were so charmed by how soft and sweet the little creature was that they hadn't looked up from the creature until that moment.
"I'm hungry," Mick growled and followed the majority of the team into the kitchen.
"Want to hold her?" Sara offered as she approached Leonard. He straightened from his leaning post and accepted the kitten with both hands. His eyes lifted to Sara. "I'd rather have you wriggling against me."
"Ugh." Rip turned his back on his crew and stalked back to his study.